It has been a full month since I last posted. The holidays caught up to me and I started to over-commit myself, unfortunately my blog went by the wayside. I am committed to working more on my blog this month and the good thing is that while over-committing myself I came up with a few good topics for the blog.
Today I wanted to talk about stability balls (or exercise balls) in the office. I’ve recently changed out my desk chair for a stability ball. I purchased one with sand in it, called a “stay ball”. The sand holds the ball in place when you stand up and the ball doesn’t roll away and you still get all the benefits of the original stability ball.
For those of you who have seen my previous posts, you may remember that I was diagnosed with moderately sever depression last year. Along with that I suffer from a bit of anxiety as well. In my particular job position, I often sit at my desk for hours on end. On the days where I have a lot of energy I find it hard to sit so long, I start to get anxious. So, I asked my boss if I could bring in a ball.
There are also real health benefits to it. While sitting you are also working to balance yourself, you are working many muscles including your core muscles, and your back muscles. You will also improve your posture.
I’ve been using the ball for about 2 weeks and I have to admit…it’s fun!. Fun? Yes Fun! It adds a bit of “bounce” to my day, while sitting at my desk. I can roll side to side and get some core exercise in while typing at my desk. While, I’m waiting for some reports to finish running on my computer, I can even do a few sit ups. I have also noticed that my mood has been very upbeat lately – I believe it to be a combination between the elliptical machine I bought to use at home for regular exercise, and the new “desk chair”.
Tags: balance ball, chair, desk, exercise, stability ball, work
how did you solve the problem of the ball being to short? I used one at work when i was pregnant, but my desk was way too high and it drove me nuts!
What size did you get? For regular exercise for under 5’5″ I think the recommendation is 55 in. I did some reading (I’ll try to find the article and post it), basically it gave some guide lines. I decided 65 would be better for me…..I also read that you could go with a larger size (75) and only inflate it until you’re comfortable if a 55 or 65 isn’t comfortable for you.